Boris Johnson's plans for reducing air pollution in London will not help the government avert the threat of multi-million pound fines from the EU over the UK's poor air quality, it emerged today.

A decision by the European commission yesterday afternoon revealed that the London mayor's draft air quality strategy, which Johnson described today as a "remarkable" piece of work, was judged to miss "important elements" .

The EU's environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, said last week that the UK government's application to seek an extension until 2011 to meet a deadline on the limit values of dangerous airborne particles, known as PM10s, had been rejected because the Greater London region remains in breach of the standard, first set in 2005.

The government had submitted its application for an extension in May, prior to Johnson drawing up his draft strategy in October in a launch timed to coincide with the first day of the Conservative party conference.

The submission was rejected on the grounds that the plans put forward by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to improve London's air quality – which is among the worst in Europe – did not meet the "minimum requirements".

The government responded last week with a plan to submit the contents of the mayor's draft strategy in a bid to persuade the commission that the 2011 deadline can be met and to block legal proceedings due to reopen in four months' time.

But in publishing its full decision yesterday, the European commission revealed that it had already looked at the draft strategy and decided that "important elements are missing, such as a clear timetable for the implementation of the abatement measures envisaged as well as an estimate of the improvement of air quality which can be expected by 2011".

Alan Andrews, lead lawyer for ClientEarth's CleanAir project, called on the government to put pressure on Johnson to produce a strategy that was "truly effective".

Andrews said: "Mayor Johnson took 18 months to produce a weak strategy that failed to convince the commission that he has a credible plan to address air pollution in London by 2011.... [T]he government needs to put pressure on the mayor to produce an air quality strategy that will be truly effective in protecting Londoners' health."

Johnson complained today the commission was being "unreasonable" for refusing to consider his proposed strategy on the grounds that it was only a draft document.

"The difficulty is that we technically cannot incorporate our air quality strategy because it has just been put forward ... I think it should take full and proper account of the air quality strategy which is far bolder than any other city has introduced and by the way puts to shame previous attempts improving air quality."

Asked why London was lagging so far behind, the Tory mayor insisted this was due to the "dither and drift" under his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, who he said had done "nothing" to deliver the air quality strategy that London needs.

Livingstone, who pioneered the congestion charge in 2003, said the mayor's remarks were "a bit rich" , since Johnson cancelled his planned £25 charge for gas-guzzling cars after coming into office in 2008, delayed until 2012 the third phase of the low emission zone which would penalise the most polluting vans, and intends to scrap the western extension of the congestion charge which charges cars £10 a day.

Defra told the Guardian that it was working closely with the mayor's office with a view to showing how traffic management measures would be put in place in pollution hotspots as soon as possible.

Johnson signalled today if the government fails to secure compliance and finds itself in court, any subsequent fines incurred if the UK government is taken to court should "not be borne by this city" because he said it was the government's fault that London was not compliant in the first place.

"I don't think it is right or very likely there will be a fine because it's possible to sort this out, but the cost of the infraction should not properly in my view be borne by this city… if you look at the total volume in pollutants they are very substantially coming outside the greater London authority area. This government has chronically refused to put in measures necessary over the last 10 years for us to be compliant."

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